President Vladimir Putin signalled on Thursday he would sign a bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children into law and sought to forestall criticism of the move by promising measures to better care for his country's orphans.

Putin tried to appeal to people's patriotism by suggesting that strong and responsible countries should take care of their own: "There are probably many places in the world where living standards are higher than ours. So what, are we going to send all our children there? Maybe we should move there ourselves?" he said, with sarcasm. (Reuters)